Profit-taking drags market lower by 1.33%

Local stocks further retreated from recent record highs Tuesday, ending lower for the second straight session, on profit-taking.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 91.16 points or 1.33 percent to 6,748.43 as the initial euphoria arising from Fitch Rating’s recent investment grade rating on the Philippines waned. It did not help that regional markets were muted by weak US manufacturing data.

Dealers said the pullback was not a surprise as investors needed to lock up gains after posting multiple highs this year, which now marked the fifth year of the stock market’s upswing. On Monday, a new intra-day high of 6,956.92 was hit before a fresh wave of profit-taking.

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All counters closed in the red but the biggest decline was incurred by the mining/oil counter.

The index was weighed down most by BPI (-4.13 percent) and First Gen (-3.6 percent) while investors also dumped shares of Megaworld, Philex, Ayala Land, DMCI, Energy Development Corp., SM Development Corp., ICTSI and BDO.

The day’s index decline was tempered by the gains made by Globe Telecom (+1.57 percent) and Petron (+0.97 percent). Bloomberry and Meralco also ended higher.